The company focused almost exclusively on pharmaceutical
applications for medical honey and bee venom, and devoted about 80 per cent of
available funding to research, he said.

"Our aim is to develop intellectual property in terms
of product research that we can license to major global pharmaceutical
companies," said Dr Holt, who was also an adjunct professor at Victoria
University of Wellington.

The company's products were produced from kanuka honey,
rather than the manuka honey that is more commonly associated with medical
benefits. However, Dr Holt said honey from both manuka and kanuka - which were
largely endemic to New Zealand - contained significant anti-microbial qualities…